Wright's Dairy Farm and Bakery

In business since 1900, Wright's is one of the last independent working dairy farms in Rhode Island. Come between 3 and 5pm any day of the week and you can watch the cows being milked, then head inside the the retail store and purchase some of the freshest coffee milk in the state. The bakery is a pleasing side-effect of milk production; skimmed cream is used to make all sorts of heart-stopping pastries and cakes. During the four days before Thanksgiving, for instance, Wright's bakers produce over 2,000 apple, pumpkin, chocolate cream, banana cream, coconut cream, custard, coconut custard, pecan, and blueberry pies from scratch. All are made without preservatives. Wright's is also well-known for their old-fashioned hermit cookies, which were featured in a 2004 episode of Food Finds on the Food Network. As if that's not enough, there's also Wright's own cheddar cheese and ice cream, plus party pizza—both the traditional Rhode Island preparation with just sauce, as well as some with cheese and other toppings (spinach or broccoli or black olive).

A 2007 Valley Breeze article gave a brief rundown of the farm's history:

"The farm was started by my grandfather, George Wright. in the 1900s," said [owner] Edward [Wright], now 67 years old. "My father Ernest took it over in the 1940s and I began looking after it in the 1960s." In the beginning, George Wright had just a dozen cows and delivered milk daily to his neighbors. By the 1940s, according to DEM, his son Ernest grew the herd to about thirty cows, added a pasteurization plant, and expanded the home delivery route. Ernest's son, Edward, saw many regular customers turning to convenience stores' low prices, and knew it was time for a change. He asked his customers to shop in their new "milk shed," a rustic building the size of a one-car garage, with just the necessities: a cooler, counter, and wooden change box. Today, Edward's three children [Elizabeth Wright Dubois, Ellen Wright Puccetti, and Clayton Wright] and their spouses, with his advice and help, run an efficient operation, employ forty-five full- and part-time workers, see an average of 800 customers per day, and sell all of the milk that is produced by their 140 cows. Their "cow shed" has grown into a 2,400-square-foot retail store, with an expanded product line including bakery items with real whipped cream.

The dairy added the new retail store space in 2005, and a new milking parlor in 2009. In 2015 the family embarked on another round of expansion, building a new, 4,000-square-foot state-of-the art baking facility on the site of an old 1914 barn.

The bake shop at Wright's Dairy Farm is open Monday to Saturday, 8am-7pm; Sunday, 8am-5pm; closed Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.